1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hand lamp for examining underbodies, wheel bearings and suspensions of motor vehicles in test stands. More specifically, the invention relates to a hand lamp comprising a housing with a handle, at least one power source disposed in said housing and, a light source with reflector and switching elements electrically coupled to the power source and to the light source, for switching the hand lamp on and off.
2. Related Art
For inspection of the underbodies of motor vehicles, in particular for examining the play of the wheel bearings, the steering linkage, etc., special test stands as described for instance in German patents 3,402,812 and 3,427,701 are used. These test stands, which, as a rule, are disposed above pits, have support plates for the wheels of the motor vehicle to be inspected. The support plates may be displaced by means of hydraulic cylinders or other linear drives for horizontal longitudinal and transverse movements. By an intermittant actuation of the linear drives the wheels are subjected to a vibration movement. A person in the pit performing the inspection can determine the respective state of the various subassemblies of the motor vehicle through visual observation. Because of the unfavourable light conditions in such pits, highly luminous hand torches are used regularly. The person inspecting must use separate devices to control the test stand and the hand torches, which entails a greater inspection expenditure in terms of time and leads to complications in handling the control device and the torch or hand lamp, respectively.
The problem addressed by the present invention is simplification inspection of the underbodies of motor vehicles when using a test stand.